Actress. A pretty blonde, she is remembered for her film and television career which ran from the late 1940s thru the 1950s. Raised in the north central Pennsylvania coal region, she graduated from West Scranton High School where she appeared in numerous theatrical productions, then with the onset of World War II joined the USO which took her on tour throughout the country entertaining the troops. Late in the war, she met Bob Hope who invited her to teach dance at the Hollywood Athletic Club; discovered by movie mogul Sam Goldwin, she joined his stable of ‘Goldwyn Girls’ and made her 1946 silver screen bow in “The Kid from Brooklyn”. Later in 1946, Tyra had her most significant film part as Miss Chalmers in “Shadows Over Chinatown”, then went on to roles in a number of cinematic features, among them the 1947 “Trail Street”, 1948’s “Up in Central Park”, “On the Town” (1949), the 1950 “Duchess of Idaho”, and 1952’s “April in Paris”. In 1950, Tyra landed a regular gig on CBS’ “Lux Video Theatre”, one of the several live upscale television shows which were popular at the time; having made her final big screen appearance in 1953’s “How to Marry a Millionaire”, she stayed with “Lux Theatre” when it moved to NBC in 1954, but left the entertainment business when it folded in 1957. Tyra worked as a Los Angeles area dance instructor up until her 1988 retirement, lived out her days in her adopted Southern California, and died of the effects of advanced age. A few of her movie performances are preserved on DVD. (bio by: Bob Hufford)